Analysis of Degradation of Sb2Se3 Thin Film Solar Cells Deploying a Time-Dependent Approach Linked with 1D-AMPS Simulation

In this paper, we have developed a time-dependent model to study defect growth in the absorber layer of Sb2Se3 thin film solar cells. This model has been integrated with the AMPS-1D simulation platform to investigate the impact of increasing defect density at different positions within the Sb2Se3 layer on the electrical parameters of the solar cell. We adopted the Gloeckler standard model for thin films in AMPS to represent Sb2Se3 materials. The study focuses on tracking the degradation of device performance parameters as donor-like mid-gap states accumulate in the Sb2Se3 layer over time. We monitored the variation of key electrical parameters, including efficiency (η), fill factor (FF), open-circuit voltage (Voc), and short-circuit current (Jsc), at three different positions: the interface with CdS, the bulk of the Sb2Se3 layer, and the interface with the top contact. These positions are susceptible to increasing defect density during prolonged operation and irradiation. To pinpoint the most sensitive part of the Sb2Se3 layer to defect accumulation, we divided the layer into three sub-layers. Our simulation results highlight that the CdS/Sb2Se3 interface is the most vulnerable position in the cell when it comes to defect accumulation. The practical implication of this study is that special attention should be given to the CdS/Sb2Se3 interface during material deposition and the development of high-stability Sb2Se3 thin film solar cells.

Assessing the carry-over effects of both human capital and organizational forgetting on sustainability performance using dynamic data envelopment analysis

Many studies have documented that human capital, which is a result of professional knowledge accumulation, continuously improves sustainability performance over time. Organizational forgetting is the loss of such professional knowledge, and it results in lower sustainability performance. Thus, human capital and organizational forgetting can be respectively treated as good and bad carry-overs. Both human capital and organizational forgetting may reflect business cycle fluctuations. The data envelopment analysis model has not been employed to examine the impact of either human capital or organizational forgetting on sustainability performance in multi-stages. The aim of this study is to develop a three-stage approach to incorporate the carry-over effects of both human capital and organizational forgetting and the effects of business cycle fluctuations on overall and term sustainability performance using data from Taiwan’s 16 major industrial sectors. The study finds that the carry-over effects of human capital and organizational forgetting lead to accurate estimations of sustainability performance and illustrates that the development of the industrial economy is a critical factor for adjusting human capital. Governments should implement economic stabilization policies and increase investment in education and safe capital to improve human capital accumulation and enhance sustainability performance

Optimising quantity of manufacturing and remanufacturing in an electric vehicle battery closed-loop supply chain

Purpose: Batteries installed on electric vehicles (EVs) should normally be removed when their capacity falls to 70-80 per cent, but they are still usable for other purposes, such as energy storage. This paper studies an EV battery closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) consisting of a battery manufacturer and a remanufacturer. The manufacturer produces new batteries by using natural resources, while the remanufacturer collects returned batteries and makes decisions based on the return quality, that is, to reuse or recycle. The purpose of this paper is to maximise the individual profits through optimising the amount of manufacturing and remanufacturing, respectively, and optimising the purchase price of returned batteries. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the Nash equilibrium, this paper develops a three-period model in the CLSC. In period 1, batteries are made from raw materials; in period 2, returned batteries from period 1 are sorted into low quality and high quality. Some high-quality returns can be reused for other purposes while those non-reusable returns are recycled into materials. In period 3, all the returns are recycled into materials. The analytical results are derived. Findings: The result of the analyses suggest that first, among the variables that affect the (re)manufacturing decision, the purchase price for returned batteries plays a critical role. In particular, the price of low-quality returns has more influence than the price of high quality returns. Second, the higher purchase price for re-usable returns does not necessarily lead to a higher return rate of reusable returns. Third, the manufacturer’s profit is normally higher than the remanufacturer’s. This suggests the need to design incentives to promote the remanufacturing sector. And finally, although it is appreciated that maximising the utilisation of batteries over the life-cycle would benefit the environment, the economic benefit needs further investigation. Originality/value: Although the CLSC has been widely studied, studies on the EV battery CLSC are scarce. The EV battery CLSC is particularly challenging in terms of the reusability of returns because used EV batteries cannot be reused for the original purpose, which complicates CLSC operations. This paper explores the interrelationship between manufacturer and remanufacturer, explaining the reasons why recycling is still underdeveloped, and suggests the possibility of enhancing remanufacturing profitability

Performance drivers of green innovation under incomplete information

AbstractThe environmental management practices have been well studied; few studies are presented the firm's green innovation activities. This study is adopted to evaluate the green innovation for environment management, with a particular focus on managerial, process, product and technological aspects. The empirical analysis from Taiwanese printed circuit board manufacturing firm's reveals that such studies does exist and that the effect of focal firm's green innovation activities has been evaluated. This study identified the appropriate green innovation criteria for the case firms and developed the following selection method: (i) evaluate the weights of aspects, criteria and alternatives as described both by linguistic preferences; and (ii) rank alternative suppliers using a grey relational analysis with entropy weight. This study presents theoretical and empirical evidence of green innovation drivers in the domains of environmental management and has interesting implications for operations management research and practices. This knowledge may contribute to better decision-making towards implementing green innovation practices

A literature review of sustainable consumption and production:A comparative analysis in developed and developing economies

Sustainable consumption and production is identified as one of the essential requirements for sustainable development. Due to different economic conditions and socio-cultural factors, sustainable consumption and production requires a diverse focus in developing and developed economies. To date, few efforts have been made to systematically compare the status of sustainable consumption and production and its direction from the perspective of developing and developed economies. This paper provides a literature review of published articles in international scientific journals related to sustainable consumption and production between 1998 and 2018 inclusive. Three carefully designed questions are proposed and answered in this article, forming the basis for conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis of the differences and challenges in sustainable consumption and production practices within developed and developing economies. The findings strongly suggest that countries in Europe hold international leadership in sustainable consumption and production practices. This finding, alongside others, is analyzed and discussed in greater detail in this paper, resulting in the articulation of gaps and future research opportunities in the current body of the literature

Investigating the effect of carbon tax and carbon quota policy to achieve low carbon logistics operations

Developing a low-carbon economy and reducing carbon dioxide emission have become a consensus for both academics and practitioners. However, the existing literature did not pay enough attention in interrogating the impacts of Carbon Tax (CT) and Carbon Quota (CQ) policy on distribution costs and carbon dioxide emission in the field of vehicle routing problem. Moreover, the investigated subsidies factor is also incomplete. This research stands on the position of the company to study the impact of CT and CQ policy on aforementioned two aspects. A mathematical model is developed to achieve the best low carbon vehicle routing under the optimal policy. The optimization goal of this research is to minimize the total cost that includes vehicle-using, transportation, CT, CQ, and raw material subsidy costs. An improved optimization algorithm, namely Genetic Algorithm-Tabu Search (GA-TS), is proposed to solve a given business case. In the simulation experiments, GA-TS and a traditional GA are compared and the results show the advantage of GA-TS on reducing the total cost and carbon dioxide emission. Furthermore, the experiments also explore the total cost and carbon dioxide emission under three scenarios (Benchmark, CT and CQ), incorporating four policies: CT, Carbon Tax Subsidy (CTS), CQ, and Carbon Quota Subsidy (CQS). It is concluded that CQS is the ideal policy to minimize distribution cost and carbon dioxide emission. In addition, the impact of vehicles’ capacities on the total cost and carbon dioxide emission is also analyzed in this research. This research also aimed at assisting practitioners in better formulating delivery routes, as well as policy makers in developing carbon policies. Finally, the limitations and the future research directions of this research are also discussed

Sustainable consumption and production in emerging markets

This special issue addresses sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in emerging markets by examining novel methods, practices, and opportunities. The articles present and analyze top-down sustainability efforts as well as bottom-up efforts on firms, supply chain networks, government regulations, and solution methods. This editorial note summarizes the discussions on the firm's operational attributes, sustainable consumption and production practices, and on evaluation and implementation methods. A dominant finding is that the issues of SCP should be explored in different ways within different contexts in emerging countries

A Molecular Dynamics Study of Water Confined In Between Two Graphene Sheets Under Compression

Several studies have demonstrated interest in creating surfaces with improved water interaction and adaptive properties because the behavior of water confined at the nanoscale plays a significant role in the synthesis of materials for technological applications. Remarkably, confinement at the nanoscale significantly modifies the characteristics of water. We determine the phase diagram of water contained by graphene stack sheets in slab form, at T=300 K, and for a constant pressure using molecular dynamics simulations. We discover that, as shown in the simulation, water can exist in both the liquid and vapor phases depending on the confining geometry and compressibility ratio. We also pay attention to how stable the interacting liquid is in relation to the pressure of compression that is perpendicular to the graphene sheets. To build this system and analyze its surface interface properties, we also used analytical and electronic scale modeling approaches. The impact of nanoconfinement on internal pressure may be seen in water, and this can be used to create interfacial materials for the creation of environmentally friendly solar cell materials. Our research highlights the intricate, seemingly random behavior of nanoconfined water—behavior that is difficult for graphene to understand. The results obtained offer crucial direction for system design and configuration of materials at the graphene/water interface that can be utilized as a benchmark for other future designs

Knowledge management in sustainable supply chain management: improving performance through an interpretive structural modelling approach

Sustainable supply chain management is one vital element in achieving competitive advantage in business management and knowledge management is seen to be one key enabler. However, in previous studies the interrelationships between knowledge management and sustainable supply chain management are still under-explored. This study proposes a set of measures and interpretive structural modelling methods to identify the driving and dependence powers in sustainable supply chain management within the context of knowledge management, so as to improve the performance of firms from the textile industry in Vietnam. The research result indicated that learning organisation, information/knowledge sharing, joint knowledge creation, information technology and knowledge storage are amongst the highest driving and dependence powers. These attributes are deemed to be most-effective to enhance the performance of firms. To further enhance the value of this research, theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed in this study